Position in chronology
Adad-nerari II 2
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) [The god Aššur, ...; the god Enlil, ...]; the god [Sîn, king of the lunar disk], lord of brilliance; [the god Šamaš, judge of] heaven and netherworld, commander of all; the god Marduk, sage of the gods, lord of oracles; the god Nin[urta, warrior of] the Igīgū and Anunnakū gods; the god Nergal, perfect one, king of battle; the god Nusku, bearer of the holy scepter, circumspect god; the goddess Mullissu, spouse of the god Enlil, mother of the great gods; (and) the goddess Ištar, foremost in heaven and netherworld, who is consummate in the canons of combat; (5) the great gods who take firm…
Source: Royal Inscriptions of Assyria online (RIAo), Munich Open-access Cuneiform Corpus Initiative (MOCCI), Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München; in association with the RINAP Project, University of Pennsylvania. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/riao/Q006021/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[...] (traces) DINGIR (x) [...] x EN nam-ri-ri / [dUTU DI.KU₅] ⸢AN?-e? ù? KI?⸣-te mu-ma-ʾe-er gim-ri ⸢dAMAR.UTU ap⸣-kal DINGIR.⸢MEŠ⸣ EN ⸢te⸣-re-te ⸢dnin⸣-[urta qar-rad] / ⸢dNUN⸣.GAL.MEŠ u da-nun-na-ki dU.GUR gít-ma-lu MAN tam-ḫa-ri dnusku na-ši GIŠ.GIDRU KÙ-te DINGIR mul-[ta-lu] / dNIN.⸢LÍL ḫi-ir-ti dBAD⸣ AMA DINGIR.MEŠ GAL.MEŠ diš₈-tár SAG-⸢ti⸣ AN-e ⸢ù KI⸣-te ša pa-ra-aṣ qar-du-ti šuk-lu-la /…
Scholarly note
Royal inscription of an Assyrian king, published in the Royal Inscriptions of Assyria online project (RIAo). Translation reproduced from the ORACC edition. ORACC text Q006021.
Attribution
Image: Based on A. Kirk Grayson, Assyrian Rulers of the Early First Millennium BC I (1114-859 BC) (RIMA 2), Toronto, 1991. Adapted by Jamie Novotny (2015-16) and lemmatized and updated by Nathan Morello (2016-17) for the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation-funded OIMEA Project at the Historisches Seminar - Abteilung Alte Geschichte of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. The annotated edition is released under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license 3.0. Please cite this page as http://oracc.org/riao/Q006021/..
Translation excerpted from Royal Inscriptions of Assyria online (RIAo), Munich Open-access Cuneiform Corpus Initiative (MOCCI), Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München; in association with the RINAP Project, University of Pennsylvania. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/riao/Q006021/.
Related tablets
Related sources
The earliest historical document in human history. Before this, we have lists, accounts, and dedications. Here, for the first time, a ruler tells us what happened — with names, places, and consequences.
The oldest surviving law code in human history. The principle that the state — not the wronged family — defines and enforces justice begins here.
Not the first law code, but the most complete and the most famous. Inscribed on a black diorite stele over two meters tall, displayed in a public place — law made visible, law made monumental.